Editors’ picks: News that didn’t fit

‘Absolutely Tragic’: Doctors tie Trump’s 30-foot border wall to surge in injuries and deaths
by Jessica Corbett | Common Dreams | April 30 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1395
“We’re seeing injuries we didn’t see before: pelvic fractures, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, and a lot of open fractures when the bone comes through the skin,” said a San Diego doctor.

Algeria’s war of independence (50-minute audio)
from The History Hour | BBC News | May 2 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1376
Sixty years after Algeria’s independence from France, first-hand accounts of a traumatic ‘birth of a nation’: a female Algerian bomber who was part of the battle for Algiers; how the French military responded with brutal tactics; a massacre on the streets of Paris; and reprisals against Algerians who fought alongside the French. Plus, the flowering of a national spirit through football.

ALU Staten Island: Labor movement resurgence (5:46-minute video)
by Dave Lippman | YouTube | April 25 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1381
Friend of Iguana Dave Lippman sent in this video: Amazon Labor Union (ALU), having won the election at the JFK8 Staten Island warehouse, looks to their second vote this week at the adjacent LDJ5 warehouse. Supportive unions and politicians rally at the site.

An intellectual no-fly zone: Online censorship of Ukraine dissent is becoming the new norm
by Alan Macleod | MintPress News | April 25 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1377
Google has sent a warning shot across the world, ominously informing media outlets, bloggers, and content creators that it will no longer tolerate certain opinions when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

DeSantis, other state officials, go after university professors, tenure protections
by Danielle J. Brown | Florida Phoenix | April 19 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1383
Gov. Ron DeSantis, House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran scrutinized university professors, made claims about profs indoctrinating students, and criticized the long-standing tenet of Florida’s traditional tenure system during a recent news conference at The Villages in Sumter County in Central Florida, where a majority of residents are senior citizens. 

Florida gave voting rights to people with felony convictions. Now some face charges for voting.
by Alexandra Martinez | Prisim Reports | April 21 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1394
Amendment 4 is now being weaponized against poor people: ten have  been recently charged with third-degree felonies for illegal voting. Eight of the 10 are Black men.

How young workers are unionizing Starbucks
by Sonali Kolhatkar | Independent Media Institute | April 29 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1380
Starbucks Workers United is racking up victorious union votes in one branch after another of the iconic American coffee chain. A young California-based worker-organizer explains why this organizing campaign is different.

Investigation shows hundreds of US cops being trained by far-right extremists
by Kenny Stancil | Common Dreams | May 6 | https://tinyurl.com/yua55z8e
Hundreds of cops across the United States have been taught by individuals who espouse far-right extremist views. “Bad training is instilling bad behavior,” said one criminal justice reform advocate.

Kathy Boudin, radical imprisoned in fatal heist, dies at 78
by Michael Hill | AP News | May 2 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1379
Kathy Boudin, a Weather Underground activist in the ‘60s who spent 22 years in prison for an armored car robbery that killed three, died of cancer after another 19 years aiding prisoners and ex-prisoners, earning a PhD along the way.

Medicare for All is not enough
by David U. Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, Adam Gaffney, Don McCanne, John Geyman | The Nation | March 31 |  tinyurl.com/Iguana1382
Communities, not corporations, should own our most vital health care assets.

More book bans sought in 2021 than any other point in past 20 years
by Chris Walker | Truthout | April 4 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1385
More than 700 challenges were made across the U.S. last year, affecting the availability of nearly 1,600 books.

Robin D.G. Kelley: White indifference is normalizing spectacular acts of violence
by George Yancy | Truthout | tinyurl.com/Iguana1386
A discussion about the current conservative pushback against critical discussions about race and racism, Black pain and suffering, and practices of hope.

While hoarding vaccine recipe, Moderna got another $300 million from US taxpayers
by Jake Johnson | Common Dreams | May 6 | tinyurl.com/Iguana1387
The Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna disclosed in a financial filing this week that it received another $300 million in U.S. government funding for coronavirus vaccine development in March even as the company hoarded its technology from the world—and attempted to undermine a critical vaccine project in South Africa.

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